The British-Dutch food group Unilever has sold the bakery business of its US subsidiary Bestfoods to the Canadian food group George Weston, for $1.76 billion (euro 1.91 billion) in cash, it said today.
The baking operations of Bestfoods are operated under the name Bestfoods Bakery company and achieved sales of $1.8 billion dollars in 2000, yielding profit before taxes of $203 million last year, Unilever said.
Unilever said the baking operations did not fit with such brands as Lipton, Knorr, Slim Fast and Hellmann's, the director of the food division at Unilever, Mr Patrick Cescau, said.
The price of shares in Unilever rose by 0.55 per cent to euro 63.50 shortly after the announcement.
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AFP